Village of Lansing

 

 

 

MINUTES of a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Lansing held on Monday, January 3, 2000, in the Village Office.

 

PRESENT: Mayor Don Hartill; Trustees Lynn Leopold (arrived late), Larry Fresinski and John Bailey; Planning Board Chairman Ned Hickey; Village Attorney Randy Marcus.

 

Mayor Don Hartill called the meeting to order at 7:37P.M.

 

Motion- To Open Public Comment Period

 

Trustee John Bailey moved to open the public comment period.

Trustee Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

            Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye                              Trustee John Bailey- Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye                            Trustee Lynn Leopold –Aye

 

Present was a reporter from the Lansing Ledger and a member of the public. Neither had any comment.

 

Motion- To Close Public Comment Period

 

Trustee John Bailey moved to close the public comment period.

Trustee Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

            Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye                              Trustee John Bailey- Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye                            Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

Next on the agenda was a public hearing to consider a Planned Sign Area for Tops.

 

Motion- To Open the Public Hearing to Consider Tops Planned Sign Area

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved to open the public hearing.

Trustee John Bailey seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

            Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye                              Trustee John Bailey- Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye                            Trustee Lynn Leopold –Absent

 

There was no comment.

 

Motion- To Close the Public Hearing

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved to close the public hearing.

Trustee John Bailey seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

            Mayor Donald Hartill - Aye                              Trustee John Bailey- Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye                            Trustee Lynn Leopold-Absent

 

Next on the agenda was the approval of minutes. Lynn Leopold arrived.

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for December 6 & 20, 1999

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved that the meeting notes are hereby adopted as the official minutes. John Bailey seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

           

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                                Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee John Bailey-Aye

 

Motion-Approval of Minutes for December 15, 1999

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved that the meeting notes are hereby adopted as the official minutes. John Bailey seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

           

Mayor Donald Hartill-Abstained                                   Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                                         Trustee John Bailey-Aye

 

                        Resolution#3624-To Change Meeting Days to Avoid Holidays

 

BE IT RESOLVED that the Village of Lansing Board of Trustees is canceling and rescheduling the regular meeting of Monday, January 17, 2000 to Monday January 24, 2000 due to Martin Luther King Day and the February 21, 2000 meeting is being rescheduled for February 28, 2000 due to Presidents Day. Both meetings will be held at 7:30 P.M.

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved that the meeting dates be changed. Lynn Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

           

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                                Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee John Bailey-Aye

 

The Mayor stated that this would give him a little extra time to have the preliminary budget ready for the February 28th meeting. These changes will be published in the paper.

 

The Board briefly discussed Tops’ proposal, as recommended by the Planning board. The Mayor asked Randy if we could consider adoption of the Plan Sign Area for Tops. Randy stated that a SEQR had to be done first. The Board completed the SEQR Short Form and it was determined that there would be no significant adverse environmental impacts.

Resolution#3625-Proposed Sign Law Action Will Not Have Any Adverse Environmental Impacts

 

BE IT RESOLVED that the Village of Lansing Board of Trustees completed a SEQR form and found that the proposed Planned Sign Area for Tops would have no significant adverse environmental impacts.

 

Trustee Lynn Leopold moved that this resolution be approved. Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

           

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                                Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee John Bailey-Aye

 

The Mayor then entertained a motion to approve Tops planned sign area.

 

Resolution#3626-Approval of the Planned Sign Area for Tops

 

BE IT RESOLVED that the Village of Lansing Board of Trustees approves the Planned Sign Area for Tops.

 

Trustee Lynn Leopold moved that this resolution be approved. Larry Fresinski seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

           

Mayor Donald Hartill-Aye                                Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

            Trustee Larry Fresinski-Aye                             Trustee John Bailey-Aye

 

Ned met with the Edelman’s on 12/28/99 and his general impression was that they were very interested in getting the road done in Kensington. The Edelmans had two concerns. First with the availability of sewer and also with the construction costs. They don’t want to invest the money in the road if they can’t build because there are no sewer units. Ned asks the Mayor to call the Edelmans and reassure them that this isn’t a problem. The Mayor feels confident that the Intermunicipal sewer project will happen in the next year. Dave Putnam, who is very conservative, has said that we will be lucky to do this project this year while the Mayor of Ithaca thinks we’ll be along by summer.  If the Edelmans feel confident with this then they will be in to discuss the subdivision.  The Edelmans were also concerned with who would pay for Project 2-Street upgrade from North Wood Blvd. to Coventry Walk.

 

Ned stated that Dave Putnam has discussed with McDonald’s the realignment of the driveway for the new McDonald’s which makes for better traffic flow. We won’t know for 3-4 years if the traffic projections are accurate because the new construction of the three recently approved projects will just be completed then we start tearing up N. Triphammer Road. In the past, Pyramid has never reached their projected traffic counts from the 1970’s. It was suggested that the way to fix some of our traffic problems was to widen the bridge over Route 13 but that is owned by NYS. Dave Putnam thinks that NYS never turned the land area along N. Triphammer over to the Village. There is not enough stacking room between the bridge and Pyramid Drive. Sear Brown has suggested signs to each road to direct shoppers to particular stores. The board had an extensive discussion on traffic.

 

Businesses are about 20% of our tax base. Sales tax in Tompkins County is unique. The Mayor is going to contact Sy Smidt for history on sales tax.

 

The City has completed the Draft EIS of Southwest Park. A copy of the 3-volume document is in our office.

 

The next Planning Group meeting is January 24th at the Village of Cayuga Heights at 8pm. John Bailey will attend.

 

Next on the agenda was discussion of Village’s goals for 2000.

 

Village of Lansing Main Goals for 2000

1.   Try to finalize issues with redoing N. Triphammer Road

2.   Codification

3.   Wrap up the Water & Sewer Business

4.   Clean up the outstanding local laws

 

Don would like to start sending out the contracts for property acquisition on North Triphammer Road. There are only two outstanding property owners’ agreements left. The mayor will get with Attorney Marcus to do a list of special specifications for each individual contract. The Mayor would also like to see all the utilities along N. Triphammer buried when the project is done. John suggested that we keep the public informed while construction is going on. Though the project won’t actually take place till 2001, the Board will try and keep the public informed by using the radio, newspaper and signs. John reported that Peter Novelli was the engineer for the Village of Dryden road improvement. It was suggested that maybe we use him as a consultant to help this whole process go as smooth as possible.

 

The Mayor asked Randy were we were on the codification and if John Bailey could help him. Randy needs to continue to work on it. This involves editing the part that wasn’t Village Law and making sure the version has all the changes that were made. The Mayor asked Randy to have John Bailey help him because that way John would become more familiar with our laws.

 

For sewer, the only thing the Village needs is Kline Road Bypass. He feels that Cayuga Heights will let us borrow sewer units against the future.

 

Other things that the Board would like to do is continue the funding for acquiring park land, spend money in budget for road improvements and look at areas in the Village that need some “sprucing up”. The Mayor would like to have a joint meeting with the Town of Lansing again early this year.

 

The Mayor asked Ned how the Focus Group for development of design guidelines for the commercial low traffic district was going. Ned stated that we have not signed a contract with EDR yet. The first meeting started slow. Cliff Buck made some stimulating comments, which prompted some good discussion at the end.

 

Budget request forms should go out in a couple of weeks. The Mayor should have the proposed budget for the last meeting in February. In March we will work on the budget and pass it at the first meeting in April.

 

The Mayor stated that John Bailey had a good suggestion at the last meeting. We will now be saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of every meeting and approving minutes at each meeting for the meeting before. The Mayor should have another Board Member appointed by the end of January.

 

 The Village will continue to pave the shoulders in residential areas of the Village. The gravel shoulders are a problem because the plows push the gravel into resident’s yards.

 

Ned said you might notice that there is a fence off Graham Road now. When Monroe Muffler came in the Planning Board had them arrange for New Plan Realty to install a fence to help keep the trash off Graham Road. Ned also suggested the Village organize a spring cleaning day in the Village.

 

Larry felt that another of our goals should be to get a Cable Commission contract in place. Also, to blast the Village with our new logo. The Mayor likes the normal green & white Village entrance signs and the brick and brass sign at the entrance from Cayuga Heights but supports putting the new Village logo on the trails, truck, stationary and a new Village Office sign.

 

Randy went over the pending local laws after first reviewing the local laws, which were passed in the past year.

 

1999 Local Laws Passed

1. Amendment of Village of Lansing Zoning Law Concerning Shannon Park Planned

    Development Area District Regulations

2. Amendment of Village of Lansing Zoning Law Concerning Accessory Buildings

3. Amendment of Village of Lansing Zoning Law Concerning Additional Residential

    Building on a Single Lot

 

Outstanding Local Laws to Consider

1. Drainage Improvements

     -waiting on EPA guidelines, too technical for the Planning Board, defer to engineer

2.  Road Shoulders

      - waiting on Dennis to provide input in order for Planning Board and Randy to

        develop revised draft

3. Consider partial tax exemption for the elderly

 

4. Consider partial tax exemption for veterans

     – Randy suggested dropping consideration of 3 & 4 since there has been no interest                

        for 5 years or more. Don recalls that the amount saved wasn’t worth the paperwork

        however, Don asked Randy to look at the current benefit to see if it is more

        significant.

5.  Implement definition of swimming pools

     - the state code really doesn’t specify and our code officer would like a more clear

       definition

6.  Elimination of distinction in Zoning Law between sewered and non-sewered districts

      - practical result of amendment would not differ from current requirements.  Don told

        Randy to shelve it

7.  Definition of Mobile Home

      - Board asked Randy to bring this issue back to the Planning Board

8.  Enacting a specific list of Type II so a SEQR review is not needed for certain

     Ministerial issues

      -this was suggested last spring by Randy, Ben and the Planning Board

       -Board will schedule a public hearing on it for the January 24th Board meeting

 

Don would also like to see a more strict noise ordinance in the Village. Ned supports the rewriting of what’s in our zoning law. He feels we should farm this out to a specialist.

 

Lynn stated that she attended the Watershed meeting. They presented a Draft Preliminary Watershed Characterization. A copy is located in the Village office. There will be three public meetings on this. Lynn stated that we also need to appoint someone to the EMC.

 

Motion- To Adjourn

 

Trustee Larry Fresinski moved adjournment. Trustee Lynn Leopold seconded the motion. A vote was taken:

 

                        Mayor Donald Hartill- Aye                   Trustee John Bailey- Aye

                        Trustee Larry Fresinski- Aye                Trustee Lynn Leopold-Aye

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:52 P.M.

 

                                                                                                            Jodi Dake

                                                                                                            Village Clerk